MacRumors

The ongoing court case between Apple and Samsung over alleged patent and design infringement has continued to take strange and interesting turns, with Samsung having been chided earlier this week for publicly releasing evidence that it had already been barred from presenting in court. But in taking its case to the media, Samsung raised the ire of the judge overseeing the case and caused Apple to file a request for sanctions based on the claim that Samsung is trying to improperly influence the jury in the case.

The disputed evidence involves Sony-inspired iPhone prototypes as well as information on Samsung's F700 smartphone, which the company says carries a similar design to the iPhone but for which Samsung has internal documentation of the design dating back to mid-2006, before the iPhone's January 2007 unveiling.

AllThingsD reports that Apple has taken the rather bold position that sanctions against Samsung should result in a default ruling from the judge against Samsung.

Apple, in its motion for sanctions, argues that Samsung’s broadcast of excluded evidence is not only a clear attempt to prejudice the jury, but part of an emerging pattern of misconduct.

“Samsung already has been sanctioned four times in this case for discovery abuses. Most recently, Samsung was sanctioned for destroying evidence,” Apple’s legal team wrote. “Litigation misconduct is apparently a part of Samsung’s litigation strategy — and limited sanctions have not deterred Samsung from such misconduct. Now, with so much at stake, Samsung has taken the calculated risk that any sanctions arising from its attempt to influence the jury with its excluded arguments are a price it is willing to pay.”

Outlining its belief that Samsung's escalation of misconduct in the case can only be properly addressed by a judge-ordered decision against the company, Apple notes that "serious misconduct can only be cured through a serious sanction".

As highlighted by FOSS Patents, Apple's request for sanctions would cover only the four design infringement claims against Samsung, with the remaining software patent claims and trade dress issues still being subject to a decision by the jury.

In that case, Samsung would potentially face a billion-dollar damages bill, most of which would be a disgorgement of infringer's profits. The jury would still have to establish liability with respect to Apple's three software patents-in-suit and its two trade dresses, but liability with respect to the four design patents-in-suit would be determined by the court.

As an alternative to the proposed court-issued decision in Apple's favor, Apple proposes a somewhat lesser sanction that would see the jury informed of Samsung's misconduct and instructed that the court believes Samsung to have infringed Apple's designs, with Samsung also being barred from any further discussion of the disputed evidence.

Several weeks ago, we noted that Apple was already undertaking a minor expansion of its massive data center in Maiden, North Carolina, having received permits for a roughly 20,000 square-foot "tactical data center" located adjacent to the existing 500,000 square-foot facility.

Wired has now obtained aerial photos of the site taken earlier this week, showing not only the new tactical data center but also ongoing installation of solar panels at the 100-acre solar farm across the street from the data center and what appears to be the 4.8-megawatt fuel cell facility behind the data center.

Nobody knows exactly what an Apple tactical data center is supposed to be, but according to Rackspace Chief Technology Officer John Engates, who has spent his fair share of time in windowless buildings racked with servers, it may be a neutral spot where Apple partners can come and plug their gear into Apple’s grid without getting any exposure to the fantastic secrets housed in the larger 500,000-square-foot facility.

Apple's North Carolina data center is just one of a series of planned major data centers designed to support the company's iCloud services and other offerings. The company already operates a smaller data center in Newark, California near its corporate headquarters in Cupertino and has revealed plans for major new data centers in Oregon and Nevada.

Last week, we pointed to tablet estimates for the second quarter of 2012 from research firm Strategy Analytics, results that shows Apple continuing to dominate the tablet market with 68% of shipments during the quarter. Google's Android platform accounted for most of the remaining shipments, taking 29% of the market.

IDC has now released its own estimates of tablet shipments for the quarter, and while the overall picture is very similar to Strategy Analytics' numbers with estimates of 25 million tablets shipped and a 68% share for Apple's iPad, IDC offers an interesting look at the competition by breaking things down by manufacturer instead of by platform. According to IDC, Samsung remains the number two tablet manufacturer behind Apple, but despite strong 117.6% year-over-year shipment growth still saw its tablets outsold by the iPad by a margin of 7-to-1.

"Apple built upon its strong March iPad launch and ended the quarter with its best-ever shipment total for the iPad, outrunning even the impressive shipment record it set in the fourth quarter of last year," said Tom Mainelli, research director, Mobile Connected Devices. "The vast majority of consumers continue to favor the iPad over competitors, and Apple is seeing increasingly strong interest in the device from vertical markets—especially education. While iPad shipment totals are beginning to slow a bit in mature markets where the device saw early traction, growth in other regions is clearly more than making up the difference."

Growth in tablets is clearly occurring at the top of the market, with Apple, Samsung, and ASUS experiencing strong year-over-year growth and Amazon having a strong entry into the market with its Kindle Fire. Smaller players are seeing their shares of the market shrink, with Acer's shipments dropping nearly 40% and the collective "other" smaller manufacturers seeing their sales slide by 16%.

Apple's 17 million iPad shipments were a new record for the company as it rides the momentum of the new third-generation iPad and its lowest entry-level pricing ever with the Wi-Fi iPad 2 continuing to be available at a lower price of just $399. With competitors launching smaller tablets that have enabled them to push tablet pricing down toward $199, Apple is reportedly looking to launch its own "iPad mini" later this year with an eye toward capturing that portion of the market as well.

Engadget points to a newly-filed patent application from Apple showing ideas for a significantly enhanced iPad Smart Cover that could contain such features as a secondary display, a keyboard, and power collectors in the form of solar cells or RF energy antennas.

An accessory device that is arranged to communicate with a host device by way of a communication channel is claimed. The host device includes a host device display arranged to present visual information. The accessory device includes the following: a flexible flap having a size and shape in accordance with the host device display, where at least a portion of the flexible flap is covered by a flap display configured to present visual information; and a connecting portion, the connecting portion arranged to provide at least a communication channel arranged to convey information between the host device and the accessory device where at least some of the information is presented visually on the flap display.

In one example, Apple shows how secondary displays integrated into the Smart Cover could offer a mini home screen alongside the primary screen or be used to display information to others while folded into its stand configuration. The displays could draw power and transmit data from a connector alongside the Smart Cover hinge or rely on embedded solar cells or RF energy antennas for power needs.

Apple also proposes to use the Smart Cover's surface as a keyboard with a touch section for customizable virtual keys. The keyboard is in some ways similar to the cover keyboard Microsoft has demonstrated for its upcoming Surface tablet.

Finally, Apple shows how embedded e-paper displays on the exterior of the Smart Cover could offer information such as notifications and reminders without requiring the user to open the cover and turn on the device. Apple could also integrate a section that would allow users to quickly scribble their own notes on the cover.

The patent application was filed in August 2011 and is credited to Apple design engineer Fletcher Rothkopf, who now serves as a manager in the company's product design division.

Just a day after Apple added new build-to-order configuration options to the low-end Retina MacBook Pro, shipping estimates have improved from 1-2 weeks to 5-7 business days in the company's online stores. The faster turnaround time is showing up in the company's online stores in the Americas, and should spread to its Asia-Pacific and European distribution channels shortly.

Shipping estimates for the Retina MacBook Pro quickly ballooned to 3-4 weeks within 36 hours of the machine's introduction in June, holding at that level until mid-July before beginning to come down. The most recent improvement before today came nearly two weeks ago when estimates moved from 2-3 weeks to 1-2 weeks.

Reuters reports that Sharp president Takashi Okuda today made a rare public reference to an unreleased Apple device, acknowledging that his company will begin shipping displays for the next-generation iPhone this month.

Japan's Sharp Corp. said it will start shipping screens destined for a new Apple iPhone that is widely expected to be released in October ahead of the pre-Christmas shopping season.

"Shipments will start in August," Sharp's new president, Takashi Okuda, said at a press briefing in Tokyo on Thursday after the company released its latest quarterly earnings.

He declined to give a more specific date for shipments beyond this month.

The report also reiterates circulating rumors that the next iPhone will carry a larger 4-inch display that makes use of in-cell touch technology to reduce thickness.

Numerous sources have all but confirmed that Apple's media event to introduce the next iPhone will take place on Wednesday, September 12, with several indicating that availability of the device will follow on Friday, September 21. Reuters' report mentions expectations for October availability, but that would mark an unusually long gap between introduction and availability given that Reuters was one of the sources to report the September 12 media event date earlier this week.

Late last week, The New York Times reported that Apple and Twitter had had discussions "in recent months" about Apple making a significant investment of several hundred million dollars in Twitter, but The Wall Street Journal and other sources moved quickly to downplay the rumor with claims that the talks had taken place over a year ago and did not lead to any serious consideration of an investment.

The Wall Street Journal now follows up with more details on the discussions between the two companies, noting that they were primarily focused on product integration such as appeared in iOS 5 last year and OS X Mountain Lion just last week.

Apple Inc. floated the idea of investing in Twitter Inc. as the companies discussed integrating the social service into Apple’s mobile operating system last year, according to people familiar with the discussions.

Apple floated the idea at the time and it didn’t progress into serious discussions or negotiations, this person and other people familiar with the matter said.

The report notes that Apple and Twitter continue to work closely together as they explore additional ways in which their products can be integrated, with iTunes being one of the areas where the two companies believe Twitter can have a larger presence as Apple moves to phase out its own Ping social network for music.

Apple and Twitter remain tight and continue to talk about future product integrations. They include more deeply melding Twitter and iTunes, according to two people briefed on the matter.

While Apple and Twitter were able to move forward relatively quickly on product integration, negotiations between Apple and Facebook have proceeded somewhat more slowly. Those two companies do, however, appear to have ironed out their differences, with Facebook integration set to come to iOS 6 and OS X Mountain Lion later this year.

Yesterday, we noted that Apple was preparing to close the door completely on its MobileMe service, bringing to an end the grace period that had allowed users to retrieve their Gallery photos and iDisk files and to transition their accounts to iCloud following the June 30 shutdown of the service.

As of today, visitors to MobileMe.com are no longer given the option to convert their accounts to iCloud or to retrieve old photos and files, with Apple now simply pointing users to iCloud.

Also in line with previous announcements, Apple has officially discontinued its iWork.com service, automatically redirecting visitors to the main Apple home page. While the service was to officially shut down as of the end of the day yesterday, it did continue to function until just a short time ago.

We noted yesterday that Apple was unlikely to provide a grace period to allow users to retrieve iWork.com documents after the official discontinuation date, and that does indeed appear to be the case.

Amazon has released an iPad app for its Instant Video renting and buying service and its streaming Netflix competitor, Amazon Prime Instant Video.

The app allows users to download purchased and rented movies and TV shows for offline viewing, as well as stream Prime Instant Video titles when connected to the Internet. Amazon also keeps track of the user's place in a video, allowing it to be resumed at the same point on other supported devices like a TV, Mac or Kindle Fire.

With Amazon Instant Video, you can:

- Stream thousands of titles available from Prime Instant Video at no additional cost with a Prime membership, or watch over 120,000 videos available from the Amazon Instant Video store
- Download purchased and rented videos from Your Video Library
- Shop over 120,000 videos available from the Amazon Instant Video store by visiting Amazon
- Add videos to your Watchlist from a PC, Mac, or Kindle Fire for later viewing on your iPad
- Subscribe to a TV Season Pass by visiting Amazon and episodes will automatically be available on your iPad the day after they air
- Start watching on your iPad, and resume watching right where you left off on a Kindle Fire, PS3, PC, Mac, or hundreds of models of connected TVs and Blu-ray players with Amazon Whispersync.

Engadget says in a mini-review that "Amazon is really coming after Netflix with this one" and that the app is polished and runs smoothly.

Amazon Prime is available for $79/year and offers discounted overnight shipping and free two-day shipping on nearly every item that Amazon sells, as well as thousands of on-demand streaming movies and TV shows and Kindle Books.

Yesterday, Amazon also updated its Cloud Player service with an iTunes Match-like matching feature. This is a significant upgrade, as Amazon's cloud music offering previously required users to upload all their music which could take hours or days depending on the size of the user's music library.

Amazon Instant Video is available free on the iPad via the App Store. [Direct Link]

Alongside the introduction of the Retina MacBook Pro last month, Apple also announced two adapters to allow users to add Ethernet and FireWire 800 capabilities to the machine through its Thunderbolt ports. But while the Thunderbolt to Gigabit Ethernet Adapter was available immediately, Apple's tech specs page for the Retina MacBook Pro has listed the FireWire adapter as launching in July.

Just as the calendar rolls over into August, Apple now appears to be making the Thunderbolt to FireWire Adapter available in its online store with a $29 price tag and a shipping estimate of 1-3 business days.

As with the new Retina MacBook Pro configuration options, users are experiencing intermittent success in viewing the new adapter in the store, with some users able to view the adapter while others simply see a "page not found" error. The issue is almost certainly related to caching, and all users should hopefully be able to see the adapter shortly.

Dutch site One More Thing reported earlier this week [Google translation] that one of its readers had sent an email to Apple CEO Tim Cook asking about the status of the adapter, with Cook simply replying "Tomorrow", suggesting that Apple would just barely make its July shipping estimate.

iLounge shares a new report highlighting a couple of tidbits of information it has received about Apple's upcoming iOS device plans.

According to the report, the new dock connector set to to debut on the next-generation iPhone will contain just 8 pins, compared to the 30 pins used on the current connector and the 19 pins that have been rumored by several sources for the upcoming connector.

According to two sources, Apple’s new Dock Connector features only 8 pins, seemingly contradicting claims of “16-pin” and “19-pin” connectors. [...]

Both of our sources concur that there are eight pins in a line within the new Dock Connector, which may well receive a different name going forward.

One of iLounge's sources also claims that the new connector will include several other design features, "potentially" including the ability to mate devices with docks and cables in either orientation, eliminating the need to determine which side of the cable is the front before connecting. The report makes mention of Apple's MagSafe standard used for power connectivity on its notebooks, but this appears to be in relation to the connection orientation options rather than a specific claim that the new iOS device dock connector will use magnets for attachment.

On a separate note, Apple is also said to be working on an as yet undisclosed iOS 6 feature that would take advantage of the low-power Bluetooth 4.0 connectivity available in Apple's recent products to provide new levels of inter-device communication. While no specifics on the functionality have apparently been shared, the report speculates on a number of potential implementations:

Our source also claimed that Apple is working on an as-yet-undisclosed iOS 6 feature that will act as a bridge between its Bluetooth 4-capable devices. The feature would enable, say, a future iPod nano to display iMessages received by an iPhone, record voice memos that could be shared via the iPhone, and even initiate phone calls through its own headphones.

Apple will be introducing the next-generation iPhone on September 12, with availability apparently set for Friday, September 21.

Apple today quietly expanded the available configuration options for the Retina MacBook Pro, now offering a full slate of individual upgrade options on the base model that starts at $2199. Previously, customers who opted for the base model were locked into a 2.3 GHz Core i7 processor and 256 GB of flash storage, with the only configurable onboard option being a $200 RAM upgrade from 8 GB to 16 GB. Customers looking to boost either the CPU or storage were required to step up to the high-end $2799 model, which offers both a 2.6 GHz i7 processor and 512 GB of storage, with additional upgrades beyond that.

Apple is now offering all available upgrades on the low-end model, giving customers full control over their configuration needs. For example, users who want to upgrade storage on the low-end model can now do so with 512 GB ($500) and 768 GB ($1000) standalone options that do not also require an upgraded CPU. Similarly, users interested in boosting the base 2.3 GHz CPU to the 2.6 GHz chip can now do so on the base model for just $100 without having to step up the full $600 to the high-end model with both CPU and storage upgrades.

Apple continues to quote 1-2 week shipping estimates for the Retina MacBook Pro as the company continues to try to keep up with demand.

Update: Some readers have noted that selection of the new CPU and storage options on the low-end model does not seem to register with the online store system. Typically, changing options results in live updating of the price and shipping estimates during the configuration process, but changes to the CPU and storage are not having that effect. Consequently, customers are unable to place orders with these new custom configurations on the low-end model.

Update 2: Within minutes, Apple has now pulled the new configuration options entirely, once again leaving RAM as the only available onboard hardware upgrade for the low-end model.

Update 3: There are now conflicting reports on whether or not the new options have been pulled. Many readers are reporting still seeing the options and are able to add the configurations to their shopping carts, while others viewing the same pages are not seeing the new options.

Update 4: The new configuration options are now appearing more consistently, and Apple has also added the ability to have individual iWork apps preinstalled. With the move to the Mac App Store, it is not difficult for users to obtain the apps on their own, but some customers will undoubtedly prefer to have their machines as ready to go as possible upon delivery.

As of June 30, Apple officially discontinued MobileMe, the company's previous suite of online services that has been replaced by iCloud. But while the MobileMe services went offline as of that date, the company has continued to allow MobileMe users to migrate their accounts to iCloud and to download Gallery photos and iDisk files "for a limited time".

It now appears that the "limited time" is rapidly running out, and users who have yet to save their MobileMe data and/or convert their accounts to iCloud need to move quickly to ensure that they do not lose their data and registered user names. As noted by Ben Guild, Apple support staff indicated to him that as of the end of the day today Apple will begin shutting down those accounts that have not been migrated, beginning the process of opening those user names up to new users registering for iCloud.

We contacted Apple support staff to confirm the timing on the transition and were told a slightly different story, with the representative informing us that Apple would begin taking the old MobileMe servers offline as of the end of the day tomorrow. Some users' data could continue to be available after that time as Apple works through the process of purging all of the old MobileMe data, but users wishing to save their data and claim iCloud accounts with their MobileMe user names do need to move very quickly in order to ensure continuity.

Users who have already converted their MobileMe accounts to iCloud will be able to continue using the me.com versions of their email addresses, although the company is rolling out icloud.com equivalents to give users the option of changing domains.

Apple's final discontinuation of MobileMe services comes as the company is also shutting down its beta iWork.com service at the end of the day today. Apple has sent out several reminders warning iWork.com users that they must save any uploaded documents before the service is discontinued, and the support representative we spoke with today indicated that users should not rely upon a grace period for retrieving those documents after today.

Amazon today announced a significant upgrade to its Cloud Player music service, bringing iTunes Match-like "scan and match" technology to assist users in making their entire music libraries available in the cloud. The upgraded service also mirrors iTunes Match in delivering all matched tracks at 256 Kbps, even if the user's original material is at a lower quality.

New Cloud Player features include:

- Amazon MP3 purchases — including music that customers purchased in the past — are automatically saved to Cloud Player, which means that customers have a secure backup copy of the music they buy from Amazon, free of charge.

- Amazon scans customers’ iTunes and Windows Media Player libraries and matches the songs on their computers to Amazon’s 20 million song catalog. All matched songs – even music purchased from iTunes or ripped from CDs – are instantly made available in Cloud Player and are upgraded for free to high-quality 256 Kbps audio. Music that customers have already uploaded to Cloud Player also will be upgraded.

- Any customer with a Kindle Fire, Android device, iPhone, iPod touch, or any web browser — and soon, a Roku streaming player or Sonos home entertainment system — can play their music anywhere.

Amazon Cloud Player is available in free and paid tiers, with the free tier limited to 250 tracks, although tracks purchased from Amazon do not count against the total. Amazon's Premium tier costs $24.99 per year and allows users to store up to 250,000 tracks in the cloud, with tracks purchased from Amazon similarly not counting toward that limit. Apple's iTunes Match service is also priced at $24.99 per year, but currently limits users to 25,000 tracks, excluding those purchased through iTunes.

As part of the upgrades, Amazon is separating Cloud Player from its Cloud Drive service, which offers file storage in the cloud. Users with paid Cloud Drive storage plans will keep their current plan and receive free access to Cloud Player Premium for the remainder of their subscription periods. With the split in Cloud Drive and Cloud Player services, Amazon is also reducing pricing on Cloud Drive storage plans. Beyond the free 5 GB plan, users can choose from paid plans starting at $10 per year for 20 GB and moving up to a maximum of 1000 GB for $500 per year.

While court documents filed in relation to the high-profile U.S. legal battle between Apple and Samsung have yielded a treasure trove of images of prototypes and concepts for iPhone and iPad designs, the court case is just now getting underway. Reuters reports on some of the early developments today, including opening statements from Apple's lead lawyer outlining how the company will argue that Samsung's radical shift in phone design was driven by its desire to copy Apple's ideas for the iPhone.

Apple attorney Harold McElhinny started off by showing slides that featured old Samsung phones from 2006 and compared it to the Korean company's newer smartphones from 2010.

The key question, McElhinny said, would be how Samsung moved from the old phones to "these phones."

"As we all know it is easier to copy than to innovate," he told the court. "Apple had already taken the risks."

Key to McElhinny's presentation setting the stage for the trial was evidence in the form of internal Samsung documents showing that the company recognized the design challenges it faced and felt that the iPhone would be "easy to copy".

McElhinny showed jurors an internal Samsung product analysis which said the iPhone's hardware was "easy to copy." Another document prepared by a Samsung executive said the company was in a "crisis of design" due to the iPhone.

Samsung has yet to make its opening statement in the case, but its filings made so far have shown how it will attempt to undermine Apple's case by arguing that Apple had copied some of its design ideas from others and that it has refused to properly license key technologies controlled by Samsung.

Jurors in the trial face a complex task of weighing the merits of Apple's and Samsung's arguments on issues related to patents and trade dress infringement. IDG News Service highlights the instructions given to the jury by Judge Lucy Koh summarizing the basic allegations from each side and offering guidance on how to evaluate the evidence.